Transformation Of Chennai Pitch: From Spin Favourite To Pacer's Paradise

Sit back, close your eyes and recollect the great spells at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. The first two reels will be that of two young spinners – one bespectacled and the other with a turban – bamboozling the batters like magicians. (More Cricket News)

Narendra Hirwani walked away with a 16-wicket match haul against West Indies in Chennai in 1986, while 15 wickets were added to Harbhajan Singh’s tally in 2001 against Australia.

So, it was quite natural to expect two modern-day greats Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to rip through Bangladesh's batting line-up at Chepauk to keep up with the tradition.

But pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep shared eight wickets among them to meddle with history and expectations.

Such dominance by pacers was unknown at this venue since the late 70s. In 1979, a three-pronged pace attack comprising Kapil Dev, Karsan Ghavri and Dhiraj Parsana took 11 wickets among them in India’s three-wicket win over the mighty West Indians.

Since then, this has always been a spinner’s paradise. But a small wind of change swept through the humid Chepauk earlier this year during the IPL when Chennai Super Kings rolled out a pitch with a tinge of grass against Gujarat Titans.

The CSK trumped GT by 63 runs as Matheesha Pathirana, Tushar Deshpande and Mustafizur Rahman dished out good spells, even as accomplished spinners like Jadeja (2-0-15-0) and Rashid Khan (4-0-49-2) ended up with ordinary figures.

“It was a call made by skipper Ruturaj (Gaikwad) in his effort to maximise the resources within the CSK set-up. Anyways, it was a change from the long-standing, set strategy of preparing slow tracks and using spinners to win (under MS Dhoni),” a source, who was familiar with the move, told PTI.

The new red-soil pitch at Chepauk perfectly aligned with the Indian team’s vision to give more practice to their pacers ahead of the all-important tour to Australia.

Having a favourable pitch is one thing, but showing the tactical nous to exploit is another. Bumrah, so expectedly, led the way.

The Indian pace spearhead setting up Bangladesh lower-order batter Taskin Ahmed was a sight to behold.

After keeping Taskin on the edge with a series of deliveries just short of length bumpers, Bumrah rattled the batter’s stumps with a fuller delivery.

It was a magnificent admixture of bowler’s skill – delivering a telling toe-crusher after using the nature of the track to bowl those unsettling climbers.

Seasoned off-spinner Ashwin, who went wicketless on the day, endorsed the pitch’s character transformation, which was put into good use by Bangladesh pacers Hasan Mahmud and Taskin as well.

“Chepauk is a place that we know. So, it's always special for me to play here. But in the past, when I played in the U-19 matches here, the wickets were always like this.

“It used to be hard red clay, good bounce. I never saw that surface again. So, I'm really glad to see it back,” said Ashwin.

Bangladesh will have to contend with a two-way firing line now when they come out to bat in their second innings.